According to the paper, nearly 2,000 nurses, managers and other senior NHS staff were spoken to, with more than 90 per cent of them saying he should step down.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Roy Liley, a health policy analyst said:

It is clear he no longer enjoys the support of front-line staff.

As stories of quality horrors, bullying and service dislocation emerge, it would seem time to recognise Sir David's huge contribution to the NHS in the past but make it clear he is not the man to take the NHS into the future.

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In it, Assistant Chief Constable Nick Baker said: "Staffordshire Police will be reviewing information brought to light by the Francis Inquiry in order to identify whether there is any potential for criminal damages."

These hospitals are already working closely with a range of regulators. If there were concerns that services were unsafe the regulators should have intervened.

The purpose of my investigation is to assure patients, public and Parliament that these hospitals understand why they have a high mortality and have all the support they need to improve. This will be a thorough and rigorous process, involving patients, clinicians, regulators and local organisations.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is reported to have called on the police to investigate the hundreds of deaths attributed to the Mid Staffordshire hospital trust.

The Francis report into failings at Stafford Hospital, published on Wednesday, called for urgent reform of the NHS.

Jeremy Hunt has spoken out following a public inquiry. Credit: Yui Mok/PA Wire

Hunt told the Daily Telegraph: “This was a public inquiry designed to help us understand why the system didn’t pick up what went wrong but I think it is absolutely disgraceful with all those things happening, whether it is doctors, nurses or managers, nobody has been held to account.”

Asked whether the findings should be handed to the police, he added: “It’s there for the police – and it’s there for the professional bodies, the General Medical Council and the Nursing and Midwifery Council, to look at and they should do that.”

Health Minister Norman Lamb has told ITV Daybreak that there has to be a proper process to ensure that people who fail in the health service are held to account.

He added: It was "utterly unacceptable what happened", and that we simply cannot have "rewards for failure".

The families of victims are calling for the resignation of NHS chief Sir David Nicholson, who was chief executive of the West Midlands Strategic Health Authority (WMSHA) between August 2005 and April 2006.

Following the publication of the Francis Report yesterday which highlighted the "unnecessary suffering" of patients at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, NHS chief Sir David Nicholson remains in his role today.

Victims' families have called for him to step down over the Stafford Hospital scandal, despite Sir David saying he is "not ashamed" of being in his job.